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LOCAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE EDITION
FIGHTING FIRES
BARBECUE
Texans Love Brisket.
Any Beefs About That?
Didn’t Think So.
NOVEMBER 2011
CAMP HEARNE: GERMAN POW CAMP
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November
2011
VOLUME 68
NUMBER 3
F E A T U R E S
8
Barbecue
By Jeff Siegel
Photos by Wyatt McSpadden
Long ago, when going out to eat was a
special occasion, Texas had barbecue. Still
does. Mouthwatering smoked brisket
marinated in a long, rich history.
14
Fighting Fires
By Camille Wheeler
Firefighters have been desperately outnumbered in the worst wildfire season in
Texas’ history. Still, heroes abound. When
ground crews see the SEATs—single-engine
air tankers with red plumes of fire retardant dropping from the planes’ bellies—
they know the cavalry has arrived.
8
D E PA R T M E N T S
Footnotes by Connie Strong Camp Hearne: German POW Camp
Recipe Roundup Barbecue: Low, Slow and Steady
Focus on Texas At the Cook-Off
Around Texas Local Events Listings
Hit the Road by Jan Adamson Christmas Tree Farms
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36
39
40
42
O N L I N E
TexasCoopPower.com
The following November stories are available
on our website.
Texas USA by Mary O. Parker
Liendo Civil War Re-enactment
Observations by Charles Boisseau
Stage Plight: The Drama of Community Theater
35
36
42
Rick Haile, Chair, McGregor; Ron Hughes, Vice Chair,
Sinton; Darryl Schriver, Secretary-Treasurer, Merkel; Randy Mahannah, Perryton; Billy Marricle, Bellville; Melody Pinnell,
Crockett; Mark Stubbs, Greenville
TEXAS ELECTRIC COOPERATIVES BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
P R E S I D E N T/ C E O :
Texas Co-op Power is published by your
electric cooperative to enhance the quality of life of its member-customers in an
educational and entertaining format.
C O V E R
P H O T O
Mike Williams, Austin
William “Buff” Whitten, Chair, Eldorado; Roy Griffin, Edna;
Bryan Lightfoot, Bartlett; Stan McClendon, Wellington; Gary Nietsche, La Grange; Anne Vaden, Argyle; Larry Warren, San
Augustine
S T R AT E G I C C O M M U N I C AT I O N S A D V I S O RY C O M M I T T E E :
Martin Bevins, Sales Director; Carol Moczygemba, Executive Editor; Camille Wheeler, Associate
Editor; Suzi Sands, Art Director; Karen Nejtek, Production Manager; Ashley Clary-Carpenter, Field Editor; Andy Doughty,
Production Designer; Sandra Forston, Communications Assistant; Suzanne Haberman, Communications Specialist; Kevin Hargis,
Food Editor, Israel Perez, Editorial Intern
C O M M U N I C AT I O N S S TA F F :
Louie Mueller Barbecue owner Wayne Mueller by Wyatt McSpadden
November 2011 TEXAS CO-OP POWER
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POWER talk
Letters from Texas Co-op Power Readers
AG AVIATION
My husband, Kenneth, and
I were elated to read your
article on ag pilots! Especially
with all the photographs of
Brett Whitten, who has been
very involved with the
Texas Agricultural Aviation
Association. The country isn’t
short of ag pilots—it is short of
experienced ag pilots. When a
fire starts here, the sheriff’s
office calls Kenneth first. As
long as there are crops, these
guys will be busy!
EMILY LAUDERDALE
Lauderdale Spraying
Service, Caldwell
Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative
I read the ag pilot story: I was
touched by his story of being a
hard worker and getting by.
LIZ MORGENROTH
Victoria Electric Cooperative
As much as I enjoy your articles
each month, I was shocked to
see “On the Wing” depicted on
the cover as a cool, worthwhile
and helpful profession. Seeing
massive amounts of chemicals
sprayed on our food, our Earth
is nothing but sad. Our children
deserve a better future than
food laden with pesticides,
which seep into groundwater
and, more importantly, into the
food we eat. A truly cool article
would feature farmers working
with the Earth—rather than
against it—using organic methods to grow food.
SHARON BROWN
Pedernales Electric Cooperative
It was a deep disservice to
future Texans to highlight the
plane(s) spraying God knows
what on crops we’ll eat or
wear. A very small amount of
research will show conclusively that natural methods
such as native plants, birds
READ MORE LETTERS
See “Letters to the Editor” in the
November Table of Contents at
TexasCoopPower.com
and bats effectively control all
but the most rampant of infestations. The natural methods
are a whole lot less expensive
and don’t poison the Texas
soil. Please be more sensitive
to the Texas we’ll leave to our
children.
OWEN YOST
Landscape architect emeritus
CoServ Electric
Andrew D. Moore, executive
director of the National Agricultural Aviation Association,
responds to criticisms of aerial application: “Regardless of
whether a conventional or
organic agricultural method
is being used to raise a crop,
materials to eradicate crop
pests—such as weeds, fungi
or insects—will very likely be
applied. Organic agriculture
uses pesticides that include
copper sulfate and other
effective insect-killing chemical compounds. Both organic
and conventional farmers will
use aerial application to treat
crop pests when other forms
of application, such as
ground rigs, might result
in crop damage. Modern or
conventional agricultural production includes the use of
Environmental Protection
Agency-approved pesticides
and maximizes crop yields—
food, fiber and biofuel—on
fewer acres. The environmental benefits include providing
more land for wildlife and
preserving vegetative ecosystems important to the
sequestration of carbon.”
On the Wing
GIDDY-UP
I was delighted with the “Ride
of Passage” article [September
2011]. Not only have I loved riding carousels since I was a
child, but I have a mustang
named Carousel. He is creamy
white with blue eyes and a
pale-gold mane. We named him
Carousel because he looks like
a little girl’s dream of the perfect merry-go-round pony. I
was tickled that so many of the
carousel ponies in the photos
resembled our Carousel pony.
SUZANN DARNALL
Pedernales Electric Cooperative
While in San Diego, I had to
ride the wooden carousel in
Seaport Village. Thanks for the
great article that brought back
fond memories of all the
carousel rides I took as a
child—and continue to take.
MARLEEN GREIF
Mid-South Synergy
We want to hear from our readers.
Submit letters online under the Submit and
Share tab at TexasCoopPower.com, e-mail us
at [email protected], or mail to
Editor, Texas Co-op Power, 1122 Colorado St.,
24th Floor, Austin, TX 78701. Please include
the name of your town and electric co-op.
Letters may be edited for clarity and length
and are printed as space allows.
LOCAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE EDITION
RIDE OF PASSAGE: CAROUSELS
SEPTEMBER 2011
SIMPLE, SAVORY SUPPERS
GREAT cover photo [“On the Wing,” September 2011].
Great article, too! Question to photographer Wyatt
McSpadden: How the heck did you get that neat photo?
Loved it, loved it. Thanks for your eye-popping work.
Alan Gee, Central Texas Electric Cooperative
Editor’s note: To learn how McSpadden captured the
stunning cover photo of agricultural aviation pilot Brett
Whitten, read “WOOM! Whitten’s Picture-Perfect Day of
Flying” at TexasCoopPower.com.
ON THE
WING
When Crop-Threatening Bugs
and Diseases Descend,
Ag Pilots Soar Into Action
TEXAS CO-OP POWER (USPS 540-560) is published monthly by Texas Electric Cooperatives (TEC). Periodical Postage Paid at Austin, TX and at additional offices. TEC is the statewide association representing
76 electric cooperatives. Texas Co-op Power’s website is TexasCoopPower.com. Call (512) 454-0311 or e-mail [email protected]. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE is $3.96 per year for individual members of
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responsibility lie solely with the advertiser. Direct questions or comments about advertising to Martin Bevins, sales director.
© Copyright 2011 Texas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. Reproduction of this issue or any portion of it is expressly prohibited without written
permission. Willie Wiredhand © Copyright 2011 National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
5
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POWER connections
People, Places and Events in Texas
WHO KNEW?
BARBECUE CAPITAL
HAPPENINGS
Nearly one in five Texas households and one
in four children in the state are “food insecure,” meaning they don’t know where their
next meal will come from, according to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
An East Texas nonprofit organization, the
Montgomery County Food Bank, is joining
others around the state in serving up extrabig helpings of support. The food bank
serves about 30,000 requests each month.
Last year, the food bank distributed more
than 6 million pounds of food to more than
50 agencies/food pantries. To raise even
more awareness about hunger, the agency will host FEEDING THE FRONTIER on
November 19. Event highlights include a Dutch oven cook-off and a 5-kilometer
walk/run with facts about hunger posted along the route. For more information,
call (936) 539-6686 or go to www.montgomerycountyfoodbank.com.
From Art shows to Zucchini festivals, you’ll find hundreds of happenings all across
the state at TexasCoopPower.com.
CO-OP PEOPLE
The Texas Legislature designated Lockhart—a small
Central Texas town that boasts
four barbecue restaurants—the
“Barbecue Capital of Texas” in
1999, and here’s why: Folks
travel from all over the state
(and country) to dine at Kreuz
Market (established 1900),
Black’s Barbecue (1932),
Chisholm Trail Bar-B-Que
(1978) and Smitty’s Market
(1999). It’s estimated that
about 20,000 people visit these
establishments each week.
That’s almost twice the city’s
population of 12,698.
.
A Woman on a Mission: Rescue
and Rehabilitate Horses in Need
PAMELA DOUNTAS
awareness at festivals and fairs.
BY ASHLEY CLARY-CARPENTER
East Texas, Dountas says, is lacking in equine rescues, and
Retired pastor Pamela Dountas is on a mission: She plans to rescue
drought and a struggling economy are making the problem worse.
every horse that needs help in East Texas.
The 60-year-old Alba resident, who grew up with horses, has vol- Many rescue facilities are at or near capacity. Donations and adopunteered for True Blue Animal Rescue in Brenham for four years. For tions are down, and some people are turning their horses out on the
side of the road to graze. Hay is scarce, and gas is expensive: A
the past six, she’s volunteered for Bluebonnet Equine Humane
Society in College Station. In August, she helped found Texas Equine recent donated offer of 56 round hay bales from Tennessee that
carried a $3,000 hauling cost was not accepted.
Animal Rescue in Winnsboro. She recently helped evacuate horses
But anybody can help: “Everybody has something to offer, even if
from fire-scorched Bastrop to Elgin. In Alba, she is the equine coorit’s a finger to dial a phone. You can donate a bottle of water, and
dinator for Rescued Pet Adoption League, and now, she’s starting
we’re grateful,” Dountas says. “While rescue
Happy Horse Tale Rescue.
work is hard, there is nothing like saving the
“Not only will we rescue, rehabilitate and
life of an animal, and when the horse greets
re-home horses, we will educate the public on
you at the gate with a whinny, you know you
proper care of horses,” says Dountas, a memhave made a difference.” For more informaber of Wood County Electric Cooperative.
tion, call Dountas at (903) 765-9129 or e-mail
Plans for the new organization include a [email protected].
bilitation center where children with disabilities can ride horses for physical therapy.
Along with her rescued donkey, Elvis,
Ashley Clary-Carpenter, field editor
Dountas has been hitting the trail raising
A longer version of this story is available at
money for Happy Horse. Elvis was three days
TexasCoopPower.com.
old when Dountas took him in. Now he’s the
Rescued at three days old, Elvis the miniaHave a suggestion for a future Co-op
ture donkey now puts on shows at nursing
spokesdonkey for animal rescue, spreading
People? Contact [email protected].
homes, Sunday schools and libraries.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY CARL WIENS
7
IN THE LONG AGO BEFORE MCDONALD’S AND STARBUCKS,
AND WHEN GOING OUT TO EAT WAS A SPECIAL OCCASION,
TEXAS HAD BARBECUE. STILL DOES.
BARBECUE
IN TEXAS, WE LOVE SMOKED BRISKET. ANYBODY HAVE A
BEEF WITH THAT? DIDN’T THINK SO.
BY JEFF SIEGEL • PHOTOS BY WYAT T McSPADDEN
Talk to Wayne Mueller, the third-generation owner of Louie Mueller Barbecue in
Taylor, and he says, yes, the subject comes
up with some frequency. Someone will
walk into Mueller’s, one of the iconic
names in Texas barbecue, and tell
Mueller that no, the restaurant that his
grandfather opened in 1949 isn’t making
barbecue the way it should be made.
They even—shudder—say North Carolina’s barbecue is made the right way.
“We’ve tried to regionalize barbecue,
but barbecue is really local,” Mueller says.
“It’s as individual as the people cooking
it. Everyone grew up with their favorite,
and that’s the barbecue that they’ll
defend forever, whatever happens.”
The point, of course, is that if a customer questions Mueller’s barbecue
integrity, which has more than 60 years
to its credit, then the idea of Texas barbecue remains as complicated as ever.
The controversy, hard feelings and
arguments that have endured for
decades still endure—how long should
the brisket cook, what’s the best wood
to use, what are the proper side dishes.
In this, Mueller and the other big
names are just some of many. What
counts, what really counts, are the hun-
dreds and hundreds of ordinary, regular, everyday places where the only
fame and glory come from keeping the
doors open in a world where it’s getting
harder and harder to make it as a small,
family-owned restaurant.
“It’s all about the smoke by the side
of the road,” says Elizabeth Engelhardt,
the lead author for Republic of
Barbecue (2009, University of Texas
Press), a book of essays that offers perhaps the best look at the modern Texas
barbecue scene.
“When we started this, we went into
it without any preconceived definitions,”
ABOVE: If your mouth’s not watering just looking at this juicy, slow-cooked brisket at Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, well, you might not be a
Texan. OK, we jest—sorta. To be fair, some non-Texans do know their way around a plate or two of barbecue. Consider Kevin Houston of Georgia, who
sure worked his magic at Louie Mueller: See all that meat? Poof, it’s gone. Nobody walks away hungry here.
8 TEXAS CO-OP POWER November 2011
says Engelhardt, an associate professor
in the department of American studies
at The University of Texas. “We didn’t
have a sense: ‘ This is pure barbecue.’
We wanted to find what barbecue is.”
LONG AGO, TEXAS HAD BARBECUE
Talk to Texans of a certain age, and many
of them share the same story. In the long
ago before McDonald’s and Starbucks,
and when going out to eat was a special
occasion, Texas had barbecue.
Edna Lynn Porter, who teaches at the
Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts
in Austin and has run several restaurants during her cooking career, remembers car trips from her home in Corpus
Christi to the Hill Country. Those trips
always meant barbecue and stopping in
Lockhart at Kreuz Market. She can still
describe the way her father crumbled
saltines to sop up the sausage fat.
“It was the brown paper and the
butcher knives chained to the table,”
Porter says. “The sausage, that if you
pierced the casing and drained it, there
must have been a quarter of a cup of
fat, easy.”
The Hill Country, then and now, is
the center of Texas barbecue. There is
barbecue in East Texas (pork, even),
and Fort Worth and Houston have their
barbecue aficionados. But the Hill
Country, says longtime Fort Worth food
writer Amy Culbertson, who grew up in
Lampasas, is the Texas Barbecue Ring.
Draw a circle, with Austin in the center,
and it’s all there along and near U.S.
Highways 183 and 290 at generationsold places like Louie Mueller, Southside
Market & Barbeque (Elgin), Kreuz,
Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que
(Llano and New Braunfels), Inman’s
Kitchen Bar-B-Q and Catering (Llano)
and The Salt Lick (in Driftwood and
Round Rock and at the AustinBergstrom International Airport).
In this, a consensus has emerged
about what defines Texas barbecue—
though, of course, because this is Texas,
it’s a consensus more by default than
agreement, and there is still plenty of
room for loud and lively discussion.
Texas barbecue means beef, and usually brisket. It means smoked brisket,
and usually for a long time over low heat.
Sauce is something for fancy French
cooking; and it’s not unusual, still, to
see barbecue sold by the pound, a practice that dates to its meat-market origins in the 19th century. The pit master,
whose knowledge is handed down from
generation to generation, is all knowing
and all seeing.
“Are there other places and other
ways to do barbecue?” Porter asks. “Yes,
German immigrants, who brought
their smoking and butchering culture
with them when they arrived in the
middle of the 19th century. And what
did they butcher? Cattle, of which
Texas already had millions. And how
did they cook it? Over coals from native
wood like oak, which was also plentiful.
This is why Texas barbecue is so different from the pork-and-sauce style com-
I’m sure there are. But that’s all I’m
going to say about that.”
mon elsewhere in the U.S. Pigs were not
a major product here—so Memphisstyle pork ribs aren’t common—and
sugar or molasses, necessary for the
sweet sauce common in places like the
Carolinas, weren’t readily available. The
150 YEARS OF BARBECUE
Mueller’s is part of that tradition.
Barbecue can be traced to Texas’
Beyond arguments over how long a brisket should cook and what type of wood to use, here’s what really counts in the barbecue world: the hundreds of
everyday places fighting to keep the doors open as small, family-owned restaurants. Included in that group is Louie Mueller Barbecue, where people like
server/slicer Tony White help keep the food and the service a cut above.
9
early pit masters made do with what
they had.
“The nice thing about Texas barbecue, as opposed to so many other Texas
foods, is that its origins are more easily
traceable,” Culbertson says. “The history is much clearer, and there is less
competition among the various stories.”
The first barbecue joints were meat
markets, says Engelhardt, where the
beef was smoked in the back and sold
over the counter. And if anyone has
ever wondered why grocery store-style
white bread is a traditional part of
Texas barbecue, the reason lies in those
meat market origins. The first customers bought their barbecue at the
market and then went next door to the
general store to buy their sides. The
general store sold saltines, and later
white bread, so that’s what customers
bought to eat with their brisket.
Engelhardt says this may also explain
why peach cobbler, made with canned
peaches, is the traditional barbecue
TOP TO BOTTOM: At stalwart establishments like Prause Meat Market in La Grange and Zimmerhanzel’s Bar-B-Que in Smithville, people are loathe
to let go of tradition—and plates of meat and sides that taste like Texas. Sure, many of us are trying to watch our weight. But we’ll cut back in other
areas. Barbecue, and especially brisket, is just that sacred.
1 0 TEXAS CO-OP POWER November 2011
dessert. General stores in the 19th century sold canned peaches, so people
made canned peach cobbler.
Over time, barbecue styles evolved,
and the arguments about the best way
to do barbecue started. Go to places
like Cooper’s in Llano, and what
Culbertson calls a cowboy style developed. The cooking temperature is hotter, the wood is mesquite instead of
oak, and the brisket cooks for less than
the usual 15 to 18 hours. Brisket,
though still the mainstay, has been
joined by other cuts—the shoulder clod
(part of the chuck) at Kreuz as well as
ribs and chicken. And technology, says
Engelhardt, brought changes, too. The
brick barbecue pit, seen today as a traditional requirement for quality barbecue, was cutting edge 100 years ago
when people were barbecuing over an
open fire—and was frowned on then as
much as gas and electric pits are today.
One thing that hasn’t changed is barbecue’s immense popularity. Yes, culinary styles have changed, and we’re
trying to eat less meat and reduce fat
consumption. And the restaurant business is far different today than it was just
a decade ago, with fewer family-owned
restaurants, which are the backbone of
the barbecue business. Meanwhile,
higher real estate prices in Texas’ biggest
cities have mostly forced the familyowned barbecue joint out of urban
areas. Judging by The Dallas Morning
News’ top 100 restaurants, it’s easier to
find sushi (six restaurants) in Dallas
than barbecue (only three).
Barbecue still sells—even in a world
where watching fat and cholesterol has
become as much a part of our lives as
watching television. Mueller’s made a
couple of concessions to changing
dietary habits in the 1990s, adding
leaner cuts of beef and chicken. But
brisket remains its biggest seller, with
some 2,000 pounds a week. Meanwhile,
the Pappas Bar-B-Q chain has 17 barbecue restaurants in the state and sells
some 4,000 pounds a week from each
location, says Pappas corporate chef
Mark Mason. Some of the restaurants
sell as much as 1,000 pounds a day.
“It’s like Texas is its own little country when it comes to barbecue,” says
Mason, who helps oversee a surprisingly traditional pit operation—woodsmoked brisket cooked for 15 to 18
hours. “Beef is still king, and you don’t
see anything like you do in Memphis
with pork. It’s the pride Texans take in
their barbecue. ”
Which anyone can see whenever
they walk into a place like Louie
Mueller—or any of the other hundreds
of places in Texas that make up the
Republic of Barbecue.
Jeff Siegel is a Dallas-based writer.
The lore of barbecue burns in the embers at places like Smitty’s Market in Lockhart. By definition,
Texas barbecue means beef—and usually, smoked brisket that’s cooked a long time over low heat.
Barbecue still sells, even as family-owned restaurants fight to keep their place at the table.
SMOKING A BRISKET: THE BASICS
Talk to a pit master, and you’ll hear that
smoking a brisket isn’t necessarily difficult. It’s time-consuming, of course, and a
pit is more cumbersome than a barbecue
grill. But the basics are straightforward:
• THE GOODS. One whole brisket, 10 to 12
pounds. If you’re going to go to the trouble of
smoking the meat for 12 hours or longer, make
a lot. Trim the brisket of excess fat.
• THE SEASONING. This can be as simple as
salt, black pepper and red pepper, or as complicated—and controversial—as a dry rub.
There are an almost infinite number of commercially available dry rubs, or you can make
your own. Typical ingredients are garlic powder, brown sugar and onion powder, but the
permutations are endless and involve almost
every herb in the spice rack. Regardless of
seasoning, let the brisket sit with the spices
for as long as possible; overnight is best.
• THE TECHNIQUE. Cook it over indirect heat,
about 200 degrees, with the heat source to one
side and the brisket to the other. This is one of
the few things that most experts agree on.
• THE HEAT SOURCE. Traditionally, this is
wood, but technology has made it possible to
use gas, electricity or charcoal briquettes
(usually combined with soaked wood chips).
Know that if you use any of the latter, many
old-school pit masters will not consider it
authentic barbecue.
• THE COOKING MEDIUM. A traditional pit
is probably too much effort for most backyard
barbecue chefs, but there are a variety of the
familiar black, commercial smokers (which
can use wood or charcoal). You can also use
a gas grill or gas- and electric-fired smoker.
For more recipes and information about
Texas-style barbecue, go to:
www.texasbbqforum.com, an online barbecue
forum
http://txbbqking.com/index.html, recipes,
products and commentary
www.bbq-recipes-for-foodies.com/texas-bbqrecipes.html, regional recipes
11
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1940s
WE SHIP YOUR LOVE
1940 This was a great year for firsts, including the first Dairy Queen in Illinois, York Peppermint
Patties and M&Ms.
1941 No, Betty Crocker wasn’t a real person, but her cookbooks, starting with the Betty Crocker Cook
Book of All-Purpose Baking, teach generations how to cook.
1942 Home milk delivery begins (initially as a war conservation measure).The garbage disposal makes
life easier in the kitchen. Dannon yogurt enhances healthy living. And, on the other end of the food
spectrum, the corn dog is born at the Texas State Fair.
1943 Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya throws together an impromptu dish for Americans visiting the Victory Club
in Piedras Negras, across the river from Eagle Pass. The beloved snack—nachos—was subsequently
named in his honor.
1944 The Chiquita Banana jingle admonishes America: “You should never put bananas in the refrigerator.”
1946 Minute Maid frozen orange juice saves time in the kitchen, as does Mrs. Paul’s frozen food and
Ragu pasta sauce. Leftovers can be safely stored in Tupperware.
1947 Betty Crocker cake mix goes on the market. For the first time, you can enclose your treat with
aluminum foil. Raytheon demonstrates the world’s first microwave oven, the RadarRange. The oven
weighs 750 pounds and costs $2,000 to $3,000. Still, it makes nifty popcorn. David Pace starts
bottling something he calls picante sauce in a rented room in the back of a San Antonio liquor
store. And the electric dishwasher arrives.
1948 Despite the invention of the seedless watermelon, seed-spitting contests continue to this day. Two
great drinks—Nestlé’s Quik and V-8 juice—also come on the scene.
60 YEARS OF HOME COOKING
1949 Pillsbury holds its first bake-off. All hail Jolly Rancher candy, Junior Mints and Minute Rice.
14-17_40s intro.indd 15
Six decades of Texas’ favorite foods, fads and facts. Full color,
hardbound with more than 600 recipes from 60 years of Texas
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13
FIGHTING FIRES
E
ditor’s note: In wildfires across
the state, volunteer ground crews
have been the backbone of firefighting forces. The courage of those volunteer firefighters will be recognized as
part of a Texas Co-op Power story coming in January.
On August 30, aerial firefighter Marc
Mullis abruptly ends a telephone interview mid-sentence. “I’m getting a signal,”
he says, referring to a dispatch on his
cellphone. “We just got a fire. I gotta go.”
That night, after dropping fire retardant around wildfires near Junction, a
weary Mullis sends this hastily typed
e-mail from the Gillespie County
Airport’s Hangar Hotel: “Sorry I had to
cut you off but the fire turned into seven
fires and I got very busy saw several
homes burn down this afternoon but I
know I saved one.”
Mullis is not a superhero. He’s a
professional, full-time firefighter who
makes pinpoint-accurate fire retardant
drops—and who developed some of his
skills years ago as an agricultural aviation pilot. His job is to help contain
fires and support ground crews in the
trenches. He can’t perform magic, but
he can sure do a lot of good.
And just like the members of a support system in place across Texas, he’ll
never stop scrapping—even though since
last fall, it’s been a grossly unfair fight:
More than 3,000 ground and aerial firefighters, many coming to Texas’ rescue
from around the nation, have been desperately outnumbered by blazes in the
worst wildfire season in state history.
In this tinderbox called Texas, firefighters have responded to almost
24,000 fires burning close to 4 million
acres and destroying almost 2,800
homes since mid-November 2010.
See the red plumes of retardant dropping
from red and white planes? The cavalry
has arrived.
BY CAMILLE WHEELER
MIKE STONE/REUTERS
One year later, Texas is still in
flames. Yes, it’s fall now. Temperatures,
blessedly, have finally dropped from
record-setting triple-digit heat. But as
firefighters continue to battle the horrific blazes sweeping our droughtstricken state, they grimly point to a
frightening fact: With a lack of rain,
there remains plenty of fuel—i.e., dry
grass and trees—for fires to feed upon.
There’s no telling when this nightmare will end.
Aerial firefighter David Guetersloh
(pronounced GOO-ter-sloh), who
owns an aerial application business in
Plains, west of Lubbock near the New
Mexico border, also learned to fly in ag
aviation airplanes. When asked if he’s
ever seen such dry conditions, the 58year-old replied, “Never, ever, and I
don’t see any change coming. I’ve flown
all across this country, and it’s never
RODOLFO GONZALEZ/AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
OPPOSITE: Flames engulf pine trees on both sides of a road near Bastrop as a wildfire burns out of
control on September 5. Firefighters, many of them coming to Texas’ rescue from around the nation,
have been desperately outnumbered in the worst wildfire season in state history. The situation remains
dire: At press time, a drought monitor map on the state climatologist’s website, http://atmo.tamu.edu/osc,
showed most of Texas wearing the bright and dark red colors denoting extreme and exceptional drought.
Texas is suffering its most severe one-year drought on record. We need rain—and lots of it.
ABOVE: But sometimes, even when it’s not raining, it pours: On September 5, one day after the Bastrop
County Complex fire started, Brian Covish greeted one of his heroes—a SEAT (single-engine air tanker)
pilot—who joined the ranks of aerial firefighters dropping fire retardant to save his home. Firefighters
on the ground depend on retardant drops from a variety of aircraft. Retardant buffer lines slow and cool
fires, buying time for ground crews to dig in on the perimeter.
looked like this.”
What’s really scary is that any number of potential culprits—barbecue pits,
cigarettes flicked out of car windows
into ditches, overheated wheel bearings
on fast-moving vehicles, welding, dry
lightning—can start wildfires.
“We’re so hot and dry, a little wind
and a spark, and here we go,”
Guetersloh says.
‘I’VE BEEN IN TEARS’
The 55-year-old Mullis, who soloed at
age 16, has 34,000-plus hours of flight
time and thousands of missions flown
as an aerial firefighter. He doesn’t
flinch at the sight of flames beneath his
wings. In April, he flew missions for
more than a week on the state’s largestever wildfire: the Rock House Fire that
scorched more than 314,000 acres in
far West Texas.
But nothing prepared him emotionally for this year of hell. “I’ve been in
tears flying over, watching houses
burn,” Mullis said in early September.
Cruelly, during Labor Day weekend,
the high winds of a tropical storm produced new wildfires in Central Texas—
most notably the 34,000-acre-plus
Bastrop County Complex fire—but
scant moisture.
Yet the longer the fires burn, the
brighter the everyday heroes shine: the
boots-on-the-ground volunteer, municipal and Texas Forest Service firefighters
who build containment lines with bulldozers, shovels and axes. The engine
crews who work the front lines, spraying
water and fire-retardant foam. The aerial firefighters who drop fire retardant
and water from helicopters and airplanes, including one of the biggest
birds of all: a DC-10 air tanker, a jetliner,
requested by the Texas Forest Service
and used to drop retardant on blazes in
the Huntsville area.
And waiting in the wings is an
equally important, yet less visible
group of firefighters: single-engine air
tanker pilots like Mullis and Guetersloh, whose decision-making and lowaltitude flying skills honed during ag
aviation careers make them ideally
suited for fighting fires.
Please understand, these pilots say:
They’re proud of their ag aviation backgrounds. All those years spent flying
low over crops, dodging obstacles, navigating sudden gusts of wind and taking off with heavy loads prepared them
for firefighting careers. Yet some people, they say, mistakenly think they’re
ag pilots pulled off field duty to spray a
little water on fires.
Some ag pilots around the state are
15
on standby to help fight local wildfires—
their efforts are invaluable. But the distinction is this: Mullis, who ran his
family’s southeast Arkansas aerial application business for 28 years, and his comrades are professional aerial firefighters.
And so are their planes: AT-802s made
by Olney-based Air Tractor, the world’s
largest maker of ag aircraft. These
planes—single-engine air tankers called
SEATs—aren’t designed to treat crops.
They’re built exclusively to fight fires.
Much more nimble than larger aircraft, with hoppers holding up to 8,000
pounds of fire retardant, SEATs pack
an effective punch as they swoop in for
the initial attack. Flying in formation as
low as 60 feet above ground, each pilot,
in succession, peels off to drop loads of
highly visible, red-dyed fire retardant
in front of flames. The pilots build a
long buffer line that slows and cools the
fire, buying time for the firefighters
Applications, which focuses primarily
on fighting wildfires, Guetersloh is one
of six aerial firefighters.
Both operations have used Fredericksburg as a temporary base this year,
and M&M Air Service’s firefighters have
been stationed in Fort Stockton to be
near far West Texas blazes. But home,
which means a runway and mobile fuel
and retardant trucks, is wherever the
pilots land at day’s end, and they’re often
diverted in flight. In extreme fire situations, when there’s no time to fly back to
base, the SEATs are equipped to land on
paved or dirt roads for reloading.
SEAT pilots, like all aerial firefighters, operate with military precision.
They do not take off until they have
received an aircraft dispatch form from
Texas Forest Service headquarters in
Merkel, near Abilene, containing all
pertinent information about a fire. In
flight at the scene, they obey orders
“I dropped in their front door,”
Mullis sums up. And he saved the
house.
There’s nothing flippant about Mullis’
remark. If there’s a chance of preventing
a home’s destruction, SEAT pilots don’t
hesitate: They’re dropping in. Such was
the case at the first Possum Kingdom fire
this year in April (unthinkably, the area
went up in flames again in August).
Guetersloh and other aerial firefighters
dropped retardant on houses already in
flames to prevent nearby houses from
catching fire.
Many people ask: Will the red retardant permanently stain structures? The
manufacturer’s answer is that in most
cases, it should wash off with water or
scrubbing or power washing (see fire
retardant facts, Page 18).
It sure beats the alternative,
Guetersloh says: “It’s easier to repaint
it than to rebuild it.”
‘GET YOUR BRITCHES ON’
RODOLFO GONZALEZ/AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Fighting massive fires requires tight communication on the
ground. As the flames rise behind them just west of
Bastrop, Scott Robinson, right, and Andy Buyers, both of
the U.S. Forest Service, talk things over.
below to dig in on the perimeter.
When ground crews see the red and
white planes with the word FIRE
painted on the tails and red plumes of
fire retardant dropping from the aircrafts’ bellies, they know the cavalry
has arrived.
BETTER TO REPAINT THAN REBUILD
Of the 15 SEATs flying in the state, six
are owned by Texas-based aerial application operations: M&M Air Service of
Beaumont has four, and GB Aerial
Applications of Plains, owned by
Guetersloh, has the other two.
M&M Air Service, which also does
substantial ag business, employs 10
aerial firefighters, including Mullis, the
flight training supervisor. At GB Aerial
from an air tactical group supervisor—
called the air attack—who soars about
1,000 feet above them.
The air attack monitors fire and aerial activity while his pilot keeps their
twin-engine plane—called the air
attack platform—circling like a hawk
above the blaze.
Just like unpredictable winds, SEAT
pilots must be ready to quickly shift
direction. On August 30, with aerial
firefighters tackling hot spots across
the region, Mullis was directed to take
off alone for the Junction area. Air
attack orders changed as he neared his
target: Instead of dropping retardant
in front of a fire, he was instructed to
immediately head for a house that was
in flames.
SEAT pilots mostly operate in
anonymity, darting in and out of fire
zones. But sometimes, they receive
unexpected recognition. One night,
Mullis, fellow M&M Air Service firefighter Bill Rose, truck driver Ted
Freeman and SEAT Manager Don
Moline were eating dinner at a Fredericksburg restaurant. A waitress, seeing
the logos on their caps and shirts, asked
if they were firefighters.
Yes, the men said. Next thing they
knew, appreciative strangers from out of
state were paying for the group’s meal.
The firefighters recalled the event
on Friday morning, September 2, at
Fredericksburg’s Hangar Hotel where
they’d been staying the past several
days. Guetersloh wasn’t at the restaurant that night, but he’s had similar
experiences. “Things like that,” he says,
slowly placing his right hand over his
heart, “they don’t go away.”
The conversation fades away, and the
men go back to arguably the hardest part
of their jobs: waiting for the call to fly. It’s
after lunch, and they’re pacing, talking
on their cellphones and monitoring wildfire activity on a laptop computer.
Suddenly, Air Attack Commander
Dick Stiliha of California bursts into
the large room. “Yo, you guys might
want to get your britches on,” he says,
referring to their flame-retardant coveralls. “We got one.”
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The firefighters go into seamless
motion, pulling on coveralls and checking their belongings. They might not be
coming back to this airport—hence the
small travel bags and the larger ones
they keep onboard packed with a
week’s worth of clothes. “This is an inbetween bag,” Rose says of his carryon. “You try to stay organized as much
as you can.”
Their birds wait outside, and Mullis’
T-shirt bears his tail tanker number, T409, with this sentiment: “SHE’S SO
FINE SHE’S ALL MINE.”
Mullis slips into his orange coveralls, and within five minutes of receiving the takeoff order, he and three
other SEAT pilots—Rose, Guetersloh
and one of Guetersloh’s pilots, Mike
Hanneman—take off for a wildfire east
of Johnson City, about 35 miles away.
The smoke is visible from town, and
over a subdivision flanked by ranch land,
the SEATs go to work: Mullis in T-409,
Guetersloh in T-828, Rose in T-441 and
Hanneman in T-871. As Stiliha and his
pilot, Fred Stone of Missouri, circle overhead in a white and blue Aero Commander, the SEAT pilots lay down the
retardant line, each making four trips
back to Fredericksburg for reloading.
About 1 1/2 miles away, two donkeys
and a few cattle rest in the shade under
a live oak tree, oblivious to the danger
at hand. As is typical, there’s little fanfare afterward over the firefighters’
efforts. “Usually, we’re the only ones
who see it,” Mullis says. “But we know.”
Mullis continues: “We did an excellent job. We definitely saved some
houses. One house was just starting to
burn. The house is now red.”
Camille Wheeler, associate editor
Note: Wildfires referenced in this story
have affected the service territories of
Bluebonnet, Central Texas, Fort Belknap,
Pedernales and United Cooperative
Services electric cooperatives.
On TexasCoopPower.com
• SEAT pilots undergo rigorous training to
earn their cards, or licenses.
• Learn how to help wildfire victims.
• The second of two stories about the
agricultural aviation industry emphasizes
that it takes someone special to land a seat
in ag planes. And a reporter gets a demonstration flight of a lifetime in a two-seat ag
aviation training plane.
Aerial firefighter James Daniell, who flies a SEAT for Beaumont-based M&M Air Service,
drops fire retardant on a fire in Graford, near Fort Worth, on September 1.
TIM PENNINGTON/GETTY IMAGES
FIRE RETARDANT
Questions and answers about the retardant being used on Texas’ wildfires:
Q: What are its basic ingredients?
A: Fertilizer salts, water, corrosion inhibitors (which prevent the retardant from corroding aircraft hoppers), flow conditioners and food-grade red dye.
Q: What happens if retardant is dropped on my house or car?
A: The product has passed safety tests, company officials say, and poses little to no
threat to structures or vehicles. But to avoid potential stains, it should be washed off as
soon as possible, preferably with a pressure washer. It will readily wash off with water
while still wet; if dry, it may require scrubbing.
Q: Will it harm my pets or me?
A: The retardant meets required levels of nontoxicity as set forth by the U.S. Forest
Service (USFS), including in testing for effects on humans, mammals and aquatic life.
Aerial firefighters, however, are prohibited from dropping retardant within 300 feet of
waterways, including lakes, rivers, streams and ponds. The USFS also prohibits the aerial application of retardant in areas with endangered, threatened or sensitive species.
Q: How does it work?
A: The fertilizer salts accelerate wood decomposition, reduce production of flammable
gases and hinder ignition, thereby slowing flames. The retardant is effective so long as
the salts cling to grass or woody material.
Q: Who makes fire retardant?
A: The brand-name PHOS-CHEK retardant being used in Texas is made by ICL
Performance Products in Southern California and Idaho.
Q: Why is it red?
A: The bright, bold color is easily seen by aerial firefighters and those on the ground.
Q: What’s the consistency of the retardant?
A: It’s mixed as a mostly liquid, slurry-like mixture. Added gum thickeners help hold the
retardant together when it hits the ground.
Q: Once dropped, how long does the retardant work?
A: It can remain effective for several weeks. But one thing will render it useless: rain.
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Electric Notes
Pole Patrol
Attaching Objects to Poles Puts Lives on the Line—And It’s a Crime
ALLAMAKEE CLAYTON ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE
W
hat do yard sale signs, basketball hoops, deer stands, satellite dishes and
birdhouses have in common? They’re often found illegally attached to utility poles. But this isn’t only a crime of inconvenience. Safety issues caused by
unapproved pole attachments place the lives of lineworkers and the public in peril.
It might seem innocent, but a
small nail partially driven into a
pole can pierce a lineworker’s glove,
stripping away crucial protection
from high-voltage electricity.
Your electric cooperative’s line
crews climb utility poles at all
hours of the day and night, in the
worst of conditions. Anything
attached to utility poles can create
serious hazards for our line personnel. Sharp objects like nails, tacks,
staples or barbed wire can puncture rubber gloves and other safety
equipment, making linemen vulnerable to electrocution.
Your cooperative’s lineworkers
have reported more poles used as
community bulletin boards, satelA birdhouse perches illegally on a utility pole
lite
mounts and even support legs
below an equally illegally placed sign.
for deer stands, lights and carports.
Not only do these attachments put line crews at risk, but also, anyone illegally
placing these items on poles comes dangerously close to energized power lines
with thousands of volts of energy pulsing overhead. It’s always wise to keep any
structure at least 10 feet away from utility poles.
Unauthorized pole attachments violate the National Electric Safety Code. In
Texas it is a crime to attach any unapproved item to a utility pole—doing so can
result in a fine of up to $500 per day.
Please help us keep our linemen—and our community—safe. Remove any
unauthorized items attached to utility poles.
—Megan McKoy-Noe
Electric cooperatives own and maintain 2.5 million miles, or 42 percent,
of the nation’s electric distribution
lines, covering three quarters of the
nation’s landmass, but deliver only
10 percent of the total kilowatthours sold in the U.S. each year.
Did You Know...
Source: National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
ILLUSTRATION BY CARL WIENS
COMSTOCK
Beat the Cold:
Caulk Before
Thanksgiving
If your house is drafty or if your
heating bill seems too high, it
could be that the warm, conditioned indoor air is leaking out of
the house—or the cold outdoor
weather is finding its way in.
Caulking obvious holes and
cracks is a good place to start
saving money and energy as the
weather cools off.
Go outside and take a slow
walk around your house. Look for
any penetration where something
from the outside goes inside, like
cables for TV and Internet or
phone lines.
You might also find holes in
exterior walls for plumbing pipes,
outdoor spigots, sump pumps and
dryer vents. Caulk around those
openings so the hole is just big
enough to let the line through with
no “breathing room” around it.
A side benefit: Mice, snakes
and other critters won’t have such
an easy time squeezing into your
house when they’re looking for
shelter from the cold.
E L E C T R I C N OT E S
Maintain a Clean Fireplace for Winter Safety
DEAR JIM: I used my masonry fireplace
often during winter to cut my utility
bills. The draft seemed to be getting
weaker. What chimney problems
should I look for when I inspect it,
and how can I reduce creosote?
—Gus H.
osote and claimed the tiles were also
loose, quoting me $7,000 for repairs.
Another company cleaned and
inspected it with a camera, but found
no broken tiles. For $200 total, they
also sealed the chimney crown, and
my fireplace has worked fine for years
now.
To reduce creosote buildup, use
well-seasoned wood and do not try to
choke off the combustion air too much
to extend the burn time.
Special fireplace logs are available
that contain chemicals to reduce creosote formation. Using these periodically can help keep the chimney clean.
Sprays are available to use on regular
wood logs and other cleaners to minimize creosote.
ney fires occur every year due to creosote buildup and other problems
with chimneys. In many cases, the
entire house ends up burning down,
and many lives are lost. These thousands of chimney fires result in as
much as $200 million in property
losses each year.
Now that you have noticed reduced
draft up the chimney, schedule an
appointment with a professional
chimney cleaner. If you are as lucky as
I was when my fireplace demonstrated
the same draft problems, the screening in the chimney cap is just clogged
with soot. This blocks the airflow up
the chimney. Just tapping the screening with a rubber mallet is usually
enough to knock the soot loose.
If that’s not the problem, there may
have already been a creosote fire
inside your chimney. The heat from
the fire can cause the tile liner to crack
and fall from the masonry wall. When
this happens, the broken tile may
restrict the airflow up the chimney.
You should be able to see broken and
loose tile when looking down the
chimney with a bright light.
A chimney fire can also cause the
creosote to puff up. It expands and
feels somewhat like plastic cooler
foam. If you can run a brush down the
chimney, some of this puffed creosote
may fall down into the firebox. If you
find either broken tile or puffed creosote, your chimney will definitely
need a professional cleaning and
inspection with a camera.
If repairs are needed, get estimates
from several chimney maintenance
companies. In my own case, one
chimney company found puffed cre-
THINKSTOCK | HEMERA
DEAR GUS: Tens of thousands of chim-
tect the floor from wayward ashes.
Wear a safety harness and tie yourself to the chimney when on the roof
and always have someone nearby to
call for help if needed. Run the chimney brush up and down many times.
Much of the hazardous damage to
chimneys is caused by moisture entering from outside. This moisture can
migrate through the brick and the
mortar joints into the chimney. Use a
water- or solvent-based sealer on the
chimney bricks and mortar.
The crown of the chimney is
another location for moisture to enter.
Tap on it lightly with a hammer to
locate any loose areas and brush them
away. If the crown is still in good condition, coat it with a special elastomer
If you use your fireplace to help take the chill out of winter, be sure to maintain it properly.
You can clean the chimney yourself
on occasion if you do not mind getting
a little dirty. This does not, however,
eliminate the need for a professional
inspection.
A local chimney-supply store should
carry a brush to fit your chimney.
Always wear a high-quality breathing
mask so you do not inhale the fine dust
particles. Seal the fireplace opening
into the room with plastic film and
tape. Also, put a large drop cloth on
the floor in front of the hearth to pro-
crown repair compound. If you have a
problem during winter, there are
crown sealers that cure below freezing
temperatures.
Check the condition of the mortar
joints. Where you find loose mortar,
fill in the gaps with an elastomer
concrete-colored sealer. Also, inspect
the flashing where the chimney meets
the roof. Deteriorated areas can be
sealed with a flexible flashing repair
compound.
© James Dulley
21
TEXAS USA
Keeping It Real
Liendo Civil War
re-enactment puts
true-to-life face on
America’s greatest
conflict.
By Mary O. Parker
Rebekah Cariker, Confederate matron of nurses, leans over a wounded
man and whispers, “Come on, give ’em a good show!”
H
She then turns to a lingering soldier and orders: “Go get me some
more wounded!”
The battlefield of the real War Between the States would’ve been combed already,
but Cariker’s command signals the need for more players to please the crowd at what
is one of Texas’ most popular Civil War re-enactment events: the Civil War Weekend
at the Historic Liendo Plantation. Held annually the weekend before
Thanksgiving—it’s scheduled for November 19-20 this year—the re-enactment is
expected to draw more than 2,000 spectators to the East Texas town of Hempstead.
Through the lens of history, it wasn’t that long ago that soldiers trod the ground
here: During the Civil War, Col. Leonard W. Groce’s Liendo Plantation was home
to Camp Groce—the first permanent Confederate military prison west of the
Mississippi River. And the plantation was the site of cavalry and infantry training
camps and a hospital.
So this re-enactment, as far as theatrics go, keeps it real. At an operating platform near Cariker, Major Jack “Doc” Thomason describes a typical procedure
while children exclaim “Ick!” at “amputated” limbs piled underneath.
From the grass drift the mournful tunes of the “hurt” and “dying.” Some roll toand-fro, murmuring “It’s so cold,” as a chaplain makes his way among them, Bible
in one hand, coins used to weigh eyelids with eternity’s sleep in another. Cariker,
too, makes her own rounds through the grass, bestowing grace now, rather than
orders, her bleached apron growing ruddy from “blood”—red food coloring.
Statewide, at about a dozen such events, an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 Civil War
re-enactors are divided into about 20 groups. Of that figure, only a few hundred
women partake, assuming such roles as officers’ wives and vivandières, a French
term for women who accompanied troops in assistance roles. Only a handful of
female re-enactors take on nursing personas. But caretaking is Cariker’s calling.
Sure, the re-enactments are fake. But her passion is real.
“When I was 10, we were at Liendo, and I walked right up to Doc and told him
I wanted to help him,” Cariker says. Thus began a mentorship with Thomason, a
former Army medic who served in Vietnam and who plays Doc, a Confederate
sawbones. Grinning, Cariker adds, “I almost threw up at one of his demonstrations, and he’s never let me live it down.”
Cariker says Thomason “has taught me everything related to 1860s medicine
that I know, and he’s inspired me to continue my medical education.”
Cariker also has drawn inspiration from her father, a 22-year local firefighting
veteran, and her late grandmother, who was a nurse. Cariker spends the time
between re-enactment events teaching emergency medical technician (EMT)
basics and working as an EMT-intermediate for a 911 service while training for
EMT-paramedic certification and preparing for nursing school.
Shortly after Thomason appointed
Cariker the matron of nurses, “I had one of
those moments when the sky parted and
beams of light came down,” she playfully
shares. “I realized I could do this in real life,
and I knew that, through nursing, I could
really make a difference.”
Suddenly, eyes twinkling, Cariker’s attention shifts to the surgical platform where a
thin-boned soldier lies ready for Thomason’s
examination. “Oh, watch this!” she says, with a
nudge and a wink. “This is Doc’s favorite part.”
Basking in the attention of the growing
audience, Thomason performs living history,
delivering well-timed theatrics, finally dramatically stuttering, “But, but, you’re ...
you’re a girl!” The crowd roars appreciatively.
During the Civil War, however, it was no
laughing matter when women served in battle, and historians still don’t know how many
women disguised themselves as men to do
just that. Instead, during this era of Clara
Barton (Civil War nurse and founder of the
American Red Cross), Dorothea Dix (superintendent of women nurses for the U.S.
Army) and Florence Nightingale (the founder
of modern nursing), nursing, not soldiering,
gets the most credit for advancing the cause
of women’s rights.
Here at Liendo, with only one medical
demonstration, blue and gray litter the grass
together, and Cariker and two other nurses
treat them all. In reality, women would have
been miles away from the front lines at a general hospital, Cariker says. “But Doc discovering the female solider, that sort of thing did
happen sometimes,” she continues, throwing
his performance an appreciative smile.
The camaraderie between Cariker and
Thomason is part of what makes re-enactment circuits special. And, Cariker stresses,
it allows her and her own family—her four
brothers are re-enactors—to maintain close
ties. So central a role does re-enacting play in
their family life, explains Cariker’s mother,
Deborah Deggs Cariker, that she and others resurrected the 15th Texas Cavalry Co.
A from Civil War days. The re-enactment unit performs in Texas, including at
Liendo, and in other states.
Rebekah Cariker says she looks forward to the role her unit plays in special
church services each year at the Liendo Plantation. “Most re-enactment events
include Sunday services, rain or shine,” she explains. “Liendo’s nondenominational services are held with three units taking turns hosting them, and since my
father is a licensed minister, every third year is his turn.”
She smiles. “But the best part is that the hymns are sung a cappella, and most
years we hold hands and sing ‘Amazing Grace.’ ”
And afterward, when the hymns fade and the operating platform has been disassembled, Rebekah Cariker returns to her everyday life, where she prepares to
help others overcome dangers, toils and snares. For real.
Rebekah Cariker, Confederate matron of
nurses, tends to the ‘wounded’ during one of
Texas’ most popular Civil War re-enactment
events: the Civil War Weekend at the Historic
Liendo Plantation. The theatrics hit close to
home for Cariker, who’s training for emergency
medical technician-paramedic certification
and preparing for nursing school.
Mary O. Parker, a freelance writer, lives in Smithville.
P H O T O B Y M A R Y O . PA R K E R
23
OBSERVATIONS
Stage Plight
Dying a thousand
deaths: a short,
happy life on a
community
theater stage.
BY CHARLES BOISSEAU
D
ress rehearsal was a disaster.
We were 12 men in a community theater production of
“12 Angry Men,” a classic courtroom drama. After fewer than four weeks of
rehearsals, we were appearing for the first time in front of a live audience—thankfully a small one, just a handful of friends and relatives of cast members for this
practice performance.
Things fell apart from the start. Like a series of dominoes, when one actor
missed a line, it had a ripple effect, causing another to miss his. That’s because he
was waiting for his cue that didn’t come.
Afterward, Jon-Michael Williford, one of the more experienced actors, said we
suffered the “quicksand phenomenon.” As things break down, actors lose confidence in others so they tend to jump the gun and deliver their lines early in desperation to stay alive. There were times I felt I was swimming in the ocean, far
from shore, on the verge of drowning, desperate to grab onto anything. The old
adage is “dying onstage.”
What had I gotten into?
Just weeks earlier, I impulsively showed up for an audition at a tiny theater in
Smithville that until recently had housed a barbecue joint. I hadn’t been in a play
since high school—some 30 years earlier. I suppose I was intrigued with the compelling story: one juror—Juror No. 8—slowly convinces 11 others that there is a
reasonable doubt about whether a 19-year-old man is guilty of stabbing his father
to death. I remember long ago seeing the movie, which featured Henry Fonda as
Juror No. 8 and Lee J. Cobb as Juror No. 3, the chief antagonist.
My chances of landing a part looked good. I was one of exactly 12 men at the
audition. Our director (and theater owner) was john daniels jr., who looked like a
refugee from a motorcycle gang: rotund with salt-and-pepper hair pulled back
into a ponytail and a limp from a motorcycle accident. (He prefers his name all
lowercase. “It’s an artist thing,” said his wife and theater manager April Daniels.)
At the end of the ad hoc “auditions,” daniels cast a number of actors with whom
he had previously worked, including veteran Bastrop actor Sam Z. Damon as Juror
No. 3. Then, he called me over and offered me the role of Juror No. 8. I was shocked.
The Henry Fonda role? Before I thought to decline I heard myself accept. On the
drive back home to Austin, any enthusiasm was replaced with anxiety. I soon dis-
covered I had nearly 200 lines. How could I memorize so much in so few weeks?
Every day, I spent hours going over a thick stack of index cards with my lines
and cues. Also, I recorded the entire play on a digital voice recorder. Over time, I
could—almost by reflex—recite my lines—except when my mind would go inexplicably blank on stage.
Lines were one thing, but there was more to acting. My character was physical.
He re-enacted scenes on the night of the murder and confronted other jurors. In
a key early scene, Juror No. 8 surprises the others by pulling a switchblade knife
from his pocket, demonstrating that the supposed “one-of-a-kind” knife used to
kill the father wasn’t so unusual. For props, daniels bought two identical knives,
each of which opened a dull blade with the press of a button. I kept one of the
knives in my pocket, since I needed to dramatically pull it out in the first act.
Finally, it was opening night, and I was sure we were destined to flop.
I stayed at a friend’s house in La Grange, only 15
minutes from the theater. That morning, I began going
over my lines at 7:30 as I walked country roads. By midafternoon, I felt as ready as I would ever be. I loaded my
car with my belongings and left the keys in the ignition
so as to not misplace them. I dressed in the seersucker
suit I was to wear on stage. At 6:40 p.m. I went to the
car. Somehow I had left the key in the “on” position. The
battery was dead.
The play started at 7:30 p.m. Was I destined to kill
the show before it opened? I ran down the dirt road and
saw children playing outside a house and a father doing
yard work. He was operating an ear-piercing leaf
blower. Their entry gate was padlocked. I waved my
arms and yelled. I imagined what I looked like: A madman waving his arms and yelling from the road. The
man finally noticed and came to the gate, and I
explained it was a matter of life and death. He fetched
his vehicle, we used my jumper cables to start my car, I
thanked him and sped off. I arrived at the theater in a
cloud of dust at 7:31 p.m. Within minutes, we made our
entrance on stage.
Things started well. The energy was high, and there
was a larger-than-expected crowd. I had been in such a
rush I forgot to have stage fright. Then I received a jolt:
I forgot the switchblade knife!
I had to think quickly. During the upcoming scene,
Williford, Juror No. 4, moves to examine the murder
weapon. As he made his request for the exhibit I unexpectedly got up and joined him at the door to wait for
the bailiff. This was definitely not in the script.
“I need a knife in here,” I whispered to the bailiff off
stage, motioning to my jacket pocket. Soon, the bailiff
brought back two knives: one tagged “Exhibit No. 1” for
Juror No. 4 and the other she surreptitiously slipped
into my coat pocket. I felt a surge of relief. We pulled it
off without the audience seeing.
The rest of the performance went without a hitch.
We made our bows and heard a sweet sound: applause.
Over the next few weeks we gave five more performances and received many accolades from theatergoers.
Months later, the experience seems almost a dream.
The applause has faded, and I have no immediate plans
to return to the stage. I suppose I didn’t catch the theater bug after all. But I’m all right with it. Nobody died.
Charles Boisseau is an Austin-based writer.
P H O T O B Y W I L L VA N O V E R B E E K
25
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7MRGI Statement of Ownership,
Management,
and Circulation
(Required by 39 USC 3685)
1. Publication Title
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Texas Co-op Power 0540-560
October 1, 2011
4. Issue Frequency
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6. Annual Subscription Price
Monthly
Twelve
$7.50
7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication (Street, city, county, state, and ZIP+4)
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1122 Colorado St., 24th Fl, Austin, Travis, Texas 78701-2167
8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher
1122 Colorado St., 24th Fl, Austin, Travis, Texas 78701-2167
9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor
Publisher
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Texas Electric Cooperatives, 1122 Colorado St., 24th Fl, Austin,
Texas 78701-2167
Editor
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Carol Moczygemba, 1122 Colorado St., 24th Fl, Austin, TX 78701
Managing Editor
Carol Moczygemba, 1122 Colorado St., 24th Fl, Austin, TX 78701
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Texas Co-op Power
October 1, 2011
15.
Average No. Copies Each Issue
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Circulation
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Complete Mailing Address
Texas Electric Cooperatives, Inc.,is a nonprofit association of rural electric
cooperatives organized as a cooperative membership corporation under
Article 1528b, Texas Civil Statutes. Its members are: Bailey County Electric
Cooperative Association, Muleshoe; Bandera Electric Cooperative,
Bandera; Bartlett Electric Cooperative, Bartlett; Big County Electric
Cooperative, Roby; Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, Giddings; Bowie-Cass
Electric Cooperative, Douglassville; Brazos Electric Cooperative, Waco;
Bryan Texas Utilities, Bryan; Central Texas Electric Cooperative,
Fredericksburg; Cherokee County Electric Cooperative Association, Rusk;
Coleman County Electric Cooperative, Coleman; Comanche County
Electric Cooperative Association, Comanche; Concho Valley Electric
Cooperative, San Angelo; Cooke County Electric Cooperative Association,
Muenster; CoServ Electric Cooperative, Corinth; Deaf Smith Electric
Cooperative, Hereford; Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative, San
Augustine; East Texas Electric Cooperative, Nacogdoches; Fannin County
Electric Cooperative, Bonham; Farmers Electric Cooperative, Greenville;
Fayette Electric Cooperative, LaGrange; Fort Belknap Electric Cooperative,
Olney; Golden Spread Electric Cooperative, Amarillo; Grayson-Collin
Electric Cooperative, Van Alstyne; Greenbelt Electric Cooperative,
Wellington; Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, Gonzales; Hamilton
County Electric Cooperative Association, Hamilton; Harmon Electric
Association, Hollis, Oklahoma; Heart of Texas Electric Cooperative,
McGregor; HILCO Electric Cooperative, Itasca; Houston County Electric
Cooperative, Crockett; J-A-C Electric Cooperative, Bluegrove; Jackson
Electric Cooperative, Edna; Jasper-Newton Electric Cooperative, Kirbyville;
Karnes Electric Cooperative, Karnes City; Lamar County Electric
Cooperative Association, Paris; Lamb County Electric Cooperative,
Littlefield; Lea County Electric Cooperative, Lovington, New Mexico;
Lighthouse Electric Cooperative, Floydada; Lower Colorado River Authority,
Austin; Lyntegar Electric Cooperative, Tahoka; Magic Valley Electric
Cooperative, Mercedes; Medina Electric Cooperative, Hondo; Mid-South
Synergy, Navasota; Navarro County Electric Cooperative, Corsicana;
Navasota Valley Electric Cooperative, Franklin; North Plains Electric
Cooperative, Perryton; Northeast Texas Electric Cooperative, Longview;
Nueces Electric Cooperative, Robstown; Panola-Harrison Electric
Cooperative, Marshall; Pedernales Electric Cooperative, Johnson City;
Rayburn Country Electric Cooperative, Rockwall; Rita Blanca Electric
Cooperative, Dalhart; Rusk County Electric Cooperative, Henderson; Sam
Houston Electric Cooperative, Livingston; Sam Rayburn Dam G&T Electric
Cooperative, Nacogdoches; San Bernard Electric Cooperative, Bellville;
San Miguel Electric Cooperative, Jourdanton; San Patricio Electric
Cooperative, Sinton; South Plains Electric Cooperative, Lubbock; South
Texas Electric Cooperative, Victoria; Southwest Rural Electric Association,
Tipton, Oklahoma; Southwest Texas Electric Cooperative, Eldorado;
Swisher Electric Cooperative, Tulia; Taylor Electric Cooperative, Merkel; TexLa Electric Cooperative of Texas, Nacogdoches; Tri-County Electric
Cooperative, Azle; Trinity Valley Electric Cooperative, Kaufman; United
Cooperative Services, Cleburne; Upshur-Rural Electric Cooperative, Gilmer;
Victoria Electric Cooperative Company, Victoria; Wharton County Electric
Cooperative, El Campo; Wise Electric Cooperative, Decatur; Wood County
Electric Cooperative, Quitman.
w
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ww.stdins.com
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For
or A C
Custom
ustom Q
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uote
8
8005220146
00 522 0146
16. Publication of Statement of Ownership
⌧ Publication required. Will be printed in the November
2011 issue of this publication.
Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher, Business Manager, or Owner
Carol Moczygemba, Executive Editor
Date
October 1, 2011
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FOOTNOTES
BY CONNIE STRONG
W
IN TEXAS
HISTORY
Former German POW
At Home in Texas
hen the clattering wheels of the Pullman cars finally
came to a stop one fall day in 1943, 19-year-old German soldier Heino Erichsen took his first step onto unfamiliar Texas
soil. After a long train trip from Ellis Island, New York, he
joined approximately 3,200 German prisoners of war
already housed at Camp Hearne, one of the first POW camps
created in the U.S. during World War II.
Erichsen was no stranger to military life. He was 9 when
Adolf Hitler came into power; by the age of 10, he reluctantly
became a member of Hitler’s Jungvolk (Young Folk). German
law dictated that all boys between the ages of 14 and 18
become Jugends (Hitler Youths), and Erichsen was no exception. “Every weekend, on Saturdays and Sundays, you had to
go to ‘class,’ which intentionally prevented you from going to
church,” recalls Erichsen, who has lived in Texas since 1981.
“It was a camp, sometimes with pre-military training.”
At 18, Erichsen was shipped to Tunisia as a private in
Germany’s Afrika Korps. Undermanned and underequipped,
the Axis forces under German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
surrendered to the Allied powers in 1943. Erichsen, suffering
from dysentery, was held captive only six months after his
arrival in Africa. He turned 19, war weary and homesick, at an
American field hospital in Oran, Algeria. His journey to Ellis
Island began by freighter from Oran, a nerve-wracking,
three-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.
“We had no idea where we were going,” says Erichsen, who
chronicled his experiences in the book The Reluctant
Warrior: Former German POW Finds Peace in Texas (2001,
Eakin Press). “But when I saw the Statue of Liberty, I knew I
was in the United States.”
Camp Hearne, by Erichsen’s description, was a “standard”
POW camp: “We could take hot showers, eat good food, and
we had sports facilities for soccer.” Also, Camp Hearne
adhered strictly to the Geneva Conventions, which stated that
POWs must be fed and housed in the same manner as soldiers of the country holding the prisoners.
POWs at “The Fritz Ritz,” as the locals referred to the
camp, also had to work. Working for farmers in nearby fields,
enlisted men earned 10 cents per hour in canteen coupons
from the government. The coupons could be used to purchase
personal items from a canteen, or general store.
Leisure time was spent on such activities as building elaborate fountains and a theater in which the POWs would produce plays for the community. Math, agriculture, stenography
and foreign language were among the college courses offered
to the prisoners by Baylor University.
Yet the prisoners of war at Camp Hearne were exactly that—
POWs held in a complex of
250 buildings surrounded by
two, 10-foot-tall barbed-wire
fences. Erichsen writes that
the POWs were “observed
from watchtowers with
power searchlights.” He adds,
“We were prisoners of the
enemy—in the enemy’s country—a situation never covered in our army training
manual.”
Yet the greatest threat to Heino Erichsen
the POWs was the internal
CAMP HEARNE HISTORIC SITE MUSEUM
threat from covert Nazis,
several of whom killed German Cpl. Hugo Krauss, a translator, for making disloyal statements about Germany and
Hitler. Erichsen was sleeping in a bunk nearby when his barracks mate was murdered. “You learned, ‘Don’t tell anybody
how you feel unless you are absolutely certain they feel the
same way,’ ” he says.
Erichsen, also an interpreter, asked for a transfer from
Camp Hearne, fearing he could be the next fatality. He was
sent to a POW camp in Mexia, where he spent one day, and
then went to Fort Knox, Kentucky. There, in spring 1946, at
the age of 21, he was declared a free man.
Erichsen became an American citizen after returning to
his hometown of Kiel, Germany, and finding it mostly
destroyed. Ultimately, he chose Texas and lives only an hourand-a-half drive from Hearne. In October 2010, he eagerly
drove the distance to attend the opening of the Camp Hearne
exhibit and visitors center.
“I learned the meaning of freedom in a prison camp. I
never knew what America was like before I was a prisoner,”
says Erichsen, co-founder of Los Niños International
Adoption Agency with his wife, Jean.
Heino Erichsen has seen both the ugly and the beautiful
side of life, and today—at 86 years of age—enjoys every
moment to the fullest. What has Erichsen learned on his journey? With a quick smile, he responds in his native High
German: “Was dich nicht umwirft, macht dich stärker.”
Or, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”
Connie Strong is a freelance writer based out of Chappell Hill.
On TexasCoopPower.com
Read more about the Camp Hearne exhibit.
35
R E C I P E
RO U N D U P
Barbecued Beans
Low, Slow and Steady
BY KEVIN HARGIS
When I decide to make barbecue, it can take a whole day for
me to fire up the grill. Yes, I know how to make a fire, and, no, I don’t have to cut
wood first. But every time I heat up my smoker, I want it to count.
So a barbecue for me begins at least a day before I actually put match to paper.
There is meat to rub and marinate, sauce to simmer, side dishes to prepare. If I’m
smoking chicken, I like to brine it first in a half-salt, half-sugar solution. This helps
the meat stay tender and moist after a four-to-six-hour stay on my New Braunfelsstyle smoker.
This particular smoker design has an offset firebox attached to a larger smoking
chamber. Dampers on the firebox and chimney allow me to control the intensity of
the fire and the heat of the smoke: hotter for quicker-cooking meats, like chicken
and sausage, and low and slow for bigger cuts like beef brisket or pork butt.
Over the years, I’ve learned that good barbecue can’t be rushed. A long, slow
cooking time will yield the most flavorful and tender meat. So the night before the
big meal, I build a big fire in my pit, burning down oak limbs into coals and adding
a generous amount of charcoal. I’ll top that with a chunk or two of seasoned pecan
or mesquite, then close the dampers and set the brisket or pork on indirect heat.
The fire smolders all night, keeping the heat low and even. Toward morning,
the fire usually has burned down, but a new charge of charcoal and pecan wood
takes care of that. My goal with large, fatty cuts of meat is to leave them on the
smoker, fat side down, for at least 18 hours.
Then, throughout the day, depending on the size of crowd I’m feeding, the
brisket will be joined by the chickens, sausage or whatever else I’m making—even
some of the sides.
One of my sentimental favorite side-dish recipes is one for Barbecued Beans my
dad used to make. He’d put the beans in an old ceramic pot with a lid, its glaze
stained brown from years of smoke, and put it right on the grill. This dish uses rela-
tively inexpensive ingredients, is easy to
make (for easy cleanup, I put mine in a
disposable foil pan) and can easily be
doubled to feed a bigger crowd.
BARBECUED BEANS
2 cans (15 ounces each) ranch-style
beans
2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
6 ounces crushed corn chips (about 2
cups)
Stir together beans, cheese, onion and
sauces. Add chips and mix well. Add
more chips, if needed, to achieve a firm
consistency. Put in fireproof container
and cover. Place on indirect heat on
smoker or grill and cook until heated
through. If you’re using an oven, bake at
350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
Servings: 10. Serving size: 1/2 cup. Per serving: 308
calories, 12.1 g protein, 13 g fat, 33.9 g carbohydrates,
5.6 g dietary fiber, 1,052 mg sodium, 8.1 g sugars, 23
mg cholesterol
COOK’S TIP Instead of buying fresh
corn chips, save the stale remnants of corn or
tortilla chips you already have. Add a bit more
barbecue sauce if mixture seems too dry.
P H O T O B Y W I L L VA N O V E R B E E K
R E C I P E
RO U N D U P
1
STEVE WRIGHT, Nueces Electric Cooperative
Prize-winning recipe: Pineapple BBQ Sauce
The call went out for barbecue-related recipes, and Steve Wright sent us one for
a nicely balanced barbecue sauce that adds a sweet touch to any smoked meat
without overwhelming it.
st
PINEAPPLE BBQ SAUCE
3/
4
1
1
1
1/
2
1/
2
1/
2
1/
2
1/2
1/4
1/2
1/2
2
1
28
1
6
cup packed brown sugar
teaspoon ancho chili powder
teaspoon black pepper
teaspoon allspice
teaspoon garlic powder
teaspoon salt
teaspoon celery seeds
teaspoon ground cloves
teaspoon cayenne pepper
teaspoon ground mace or nutmeg
cup rice vinegar
cup honey
tablespoons soy sauce
bay leaf
ounces ketchup
tablespoon Liquid Smoke
tablespoons pineapple juice
concentrate
Mix all ingredients in saucepan and
bring to a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, check for a balance between sweet and sour. If it is too
sweet, add a little more vinegar. If it is
too sour, add a little more brown sugar.
Add cayenne if more spice is desired and
add salt to taste.
Servings: 24. Serving size: 1/4 cup. Per serving:
92 calories, 0.8 g protein, 0.1 g fat, 23.8 g carbohydrates, 0.3 g dietary fiber, 519 mg sodium, 22.5 g sugars
BARBECUED MEATLOAF
1/2
1/4
2
1
1 1/2
1/4
1
1/4
2
1/4
1/4
1/4
1
1
1
cup sweet barbecue sauce (bottled)
cup ketchup
pounds lean ground beef
pound ground pork
cups panko bread crumbs
cup milk
egg, slightly beaten
cup bacon grease
teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
teaspoon garlic powder
teaspoon ground coriander
teaspoon ground cumin
teaspoon dried tarragon
teaspoon salt
teaspoon black pepper
Mix barbecue sauce and ketchup and set
aside. Prepare grill for indirect cooking
and heat to 325 degrees. Brush grill with
oil. Process meats in food processor until
further ground (1 to 2 minutes). In large
bowl, mix panko crumbs and milk, then
stir in egg, bacon grease, Worcestershire
and seasonings. Mix in meat. Line 9x4inch loaf pan with heavy foil. Press meat
mixture into pan and remove from pan
using foil. Remove foil and place meatloaf directly on grill. Top with 3 tablespoons of sauce. Grill 1 to 1 1/2 hours or
until top of loaf registers 155 degrees.
Serve with remaining sauce.
Servings: 8. Serving size: 1 slice. Per serving:
464 calories, 37 g protein, 22 g fat, 23.2 g carbohydrates, 1.1 g dietary fiber, 797 mg sodium, 7.6 g sugars,
133 mg cholesterol
LISA DOVER
Houston County Electric Cooperative
CREAMY BARBECUED RICE
1/2
cup butter
1 small onion, chopped
2/3 cup chopped celery
2 cans (10 3/4 ounces each) cream of
chicken soup
1 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons Liquid Smoke
2 cups cooked white rice
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
Fresh parsley (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly
grease a 2 1/2-quart casserole dish. In
large skillet, melt butter over medium
heat. Add onion and celery and cook
for 6 to 8 minutes, or until tender.
Stir in soup, broth and Liquid Smoke.
Increase heat to medium-high, bring
to a boil and cook 1 minute. Remove
from heat and stir in rice and garlic salt.
Spoon into prepared baking dish. Bake
for 30 minutes. Garnish with fresh parsley, if desired.
Servings: 8. Serving size: 1/2 cup. Per serving: 237
calories, 3.6 g protein, 14.5 g fat, 19.9 g carbohydrates, 0.4 g dietary fiber, 760 mg sodium, 1 g sugars,
36 mg cholesterol
SAMANTHA HOOVER
Grayson-Collin Electric Cooperative
MIKE’S SMOKED BRISKET
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup seasoned salt
1 beef brisket (10 to 16 pounds)
Mix first six ingredients. Rub on brisket
and wrap with plastic wrap. Put in refrigerator for at least 24 hours. Remove from
plastic and wrap in heavy foil. Place in
225-degree smoker (slow to medium fire)
with fat side down for 3 hours. Place in
empty 40-quart cooler for 12 hours (and
don’t open the lid). Put back on smoker
for 6 hours at 225 degrees. Let set for 30
minutes before slicing.
Servings: 24 to 40, depending on weight of raw
brisket. Serving size: 1/4 pound. Per serving: 186 calories, 24.5 g protein, 3.6 g fat, 10.9 g carbohydrates,
trace dietary fiber, 2,917 mg sodium, 10.7 g sugars,
73 mg cholesterol
MIKE MCCARTNEY
Grayson-Collin Electric Cooperative
$100 RECIPE CONTEST
March’s recipe contest topic is Pasta Sauces and Pestos.
A good sauce is the key to making a delicious pasta dish.
What are your favorites? The deadline is November 10.
SPONSORED BY THE TEXAS PEANUT PRODUCERS BOARD.
Submit recipes online at TexasCoopPower.com under the Submit and Share tab. Or mail
them to Home Cooking, 1122 Colorado St., 24th Floor, Austin, TX 78701. You may also fax
them to (512) 763-3408. Please include your name, address and phone number, as well as
the name of your electric co-op. Also, let us know where you found the recipe or whether
it’s one you developed yourself. The top winner will receive $100. Runners-up will also
receive a prize.
2011 © SVETLANA RYZHKOVA. IMAGE FROM BIGSTOCK.COM
37
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Wrinkles, Under-eye Dark Circles and
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FOCUS
ON TEXAS
AT THE COOK- OFF
Whether it’s chili, barbecue, chicken-fried steak
or even mashed potatoes (yep, every October in
Wimberley) on the menu, cook-offs let Texans showcase their culinary—and creative—skills. Some folks
in co-op country go all out for these chef-inspired
celebrations, complete with costumes, decorations,
(friendly) smack talk and smiles! So don your best
duds, bring your appetite, bust out those Dutch ovens
and grills, stoke that fire and get cookin’!
—ashley clary- carpenter
1 Sam Houston Electric Cooperative member Andrea Ortego, right,
and fellow Chili Chix Judy Herring, left, and Ronnie Ynoscencio pose
in their trophy-winning booth at the Indian Springs Volunteer Fire
Department Chili Cook-Off.
1 Bandera Electric Cooperative (BEC) and Nueces Electric
Cooperative member Shirley Shandley says friend Rick Verde, also a
BEC member, and his team placed first in cobbler, third in chickenfried steak and fourth in most authentic wagon competition at his first
chuck-wagon cook-off in Helotes.
“Oouuu … dat crawfish!” drawls Bandera Electric Cooperative member
Bill Evans about this ready pot simmering with goodness: “Crawfish,
sausage, corn, garlic, every pepper we could find and lots of seasoning!” Evans annually cooks up mudbugs—this year, 250 pounds! 3
Upcoming in Focus on Texas
ISSUE
SUBJECT
Jan
Baby, It’s Cold Outside Nov 10
DEADLINE
Feb
Going Nuts!
Dec 10
Sponsored by Texas Peanut Producers
Mar
Wild Animals
Jan 10
Apr
Easter
Feb 10
May
Everything’s Bigger in Texas Mar 10
June
Hard at Work
Apr 10
BABY, IT’S COLD OUTSIDE is the topic for our JANUARY
2012 issue. Send your photo—along with your name,
address, daytime phone, co-op affiliation and a brief
description—to Baby, It’s Cold Outside, 1122 Colorado
St., 24th Floor, Austin, TX 78701, before NOVEMBER 10.
A stamped, self-addressed envelope must be included
if you want your entry returned (approximately six
weeks). Please do not submit irreplaceable photographs—send a copy or duplicate. If you use a digital
camera, submit your highest-resolution images online
under the Contests tab at TexasCoopPower.com. We
regret that Texas Co-op Power cannot be responsible
for photos that are lost in the mail or not received by the
deadline. Please note that we cannot provide individual
critiques of submitted photos.
1 Pedernales Electric Cooperative
(PEC) member Joey Smith, of
Circle Track Smokers, demonstrates the only way to eat ribs.
Kevin and Cynthia LaRoche,
PEC and Central Texas Electric
Cooperative members who sent
in the photo, sponsor the spices
for Smith’s cook-off team.
1 Jan Nimtz takes a break during Boerne’s Chuck Wagon CookOff with a fellow everyone
thought looked like Gabby Hayes,
the late actor known for portraying colorful sidekicks in Western
movies. Jan and husband Ed,
who took the photo, are members
of Bandera Electric Cooperative.
A ROU N D T E XA S A ROUN D T EXA S
This is just a sampling of the events
and festivals around Texas. For the
complete listing, please visit the
Events page at TexasCoopPower.com.
PICK OF THE MONTH
NOVEMBER
05
NOVEMBER 4
17
CUERO
Country Music Opry
LINDENAU
Fall Harvest Home Show,
(361) 275-2112
TROY
Farmers Market/Arts &
Crafts, (254) 421-2485,
www.troyfarmersmarket
.net
CELINA
Balloon Festival & Family Fun Day,
(972) 382-3300,
www.celinaballoonfestival.com
WHITEWRIGHT
Grand Street Fall Festival,
(903) 364-2000,
www.grandstreetfall
festival.com
10
LEVELLAND
Ladies Night Out,
(806) 894-3157,
www.levelland.com
12
EDGE
Rompin’ Stompin’ Street
Fest, (979) 589-3539
POWDERLY
Chuck Wagon Cook-Off,
(903) 272-4653
12
WELLINGTON
Le Theatre de Marionette
presents The Wizard of
Oz, (806) 447-0090,
www.wellingtonritz
theatre.com
KINGSLAND [12–13]
Fall Craft Show,
(325) 388-0150,
www.kingslandcrafts.com
13
MCALLEN
Conjunto Music Shootout,
(956) 867-8783,
www.facebook
.com/lalomitapark
17
CUERO
Country Music Opry,
(361) 275-6334
19
CROCKETT
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy,
(936) 544-4276,
www.pwfaa.org
BALLOONS: 2011 © S. IMAGE FROM BIGSTOCK.COM. MUSICIAN: 2011 © LISA F. YOUNG. IMAGE FROM BIGSTOCK.COM.
WELCOME WINTER
TEXANS & BIRD ENTHUSIASTS!
REST & RELAXATION PACKAGE
One night stay at the Hampton Inn & Suites
Dinner for 2 at The Fat Grass Restaurant
Tickets for 2 at the Matagorda County Museum
One-hour massage for 2 at Main Street Spa
Main Street Coffee & Wine vouchers
NOV 4-6 ✦ A Country Christmas Carol Musical, Bay City
NOV 17 ✦ Christmas Around the Square, Bay City
NOV 17 ~ DEC 31 ✦ Festival of Trees, MC Museum
NOV 26 ✦ Thanksgiving Lighted Boat Parade, Sargent
DEC 1 ✦ Lighted Christmas Parade, Bay City
DEC 3 ✦ Seaside Holiday, Palacios
DEC 17 ✦ Christmas Market Day, Bay City
DEC 19 ✦ NAS Christmas Bird Count
www.visitmatagordacounty.com
•
877-TRVL-FUN
A ROU N D T E XA S A ROUN D T EXA S
19
PARIS
Tinsel and Tidings Holiday
Bazaar, (903) 785-5221,
www.ywca.org
25
MCKINNEY [25–27]
Dickens of a Christmas,
(972) 547-2660,
www.downtown
mckinney.com
DECEMBER
02
HUNTSVILLE [2–4]
Huntsville for the
Holidays, 1-800-2890389, www.huntsville
texas.com
1
LEDBETTER [2–3, 9–10,
16–17, 23] Christmas Lane
of Lights, (979) 412-4167,
www.ledbetters
christmaslaneoflights.com
JASPER
Annual Christmas
Parade of Lights
ATHENS [25–12/4]
Festival of Trees,
(903) 677-2001
01
JASPER
Annual Christmas Parade
of Lights,
(409) 384-2762,
www.jaspercoc.org
03
25
ATHENS
Festival of Trees
FREDERICKSBURG
Community Christmas
Parade, 1-888-9973600, www.visit
fredericksburgtx.com
VICTORIA
The Lighted Christmas
Parade, (361) 485-3200,
www.victoriatx.org
DECATUR [3–4]
Cowboy Christmas Story,
(903) 785-9396,
www.wisecountycowboy
church.com
PORT LAVACA
Festival of Lights Parade,
(361) 552-2959,
www.portlavacatx.org
02
BEEVILLE [2–4]
Winterfest,
(361) 358-3267
04
DRIFTWOOD
Mustang Mare-y
Christmas Barn Tour,
(512) 894-0105,
http://texash2oasis.org
4
DRIFTWOOD
Mustang Mare-y
Christmas Barn Tour
We pick events for the
magazine directly from
TexasCoopPower.com.
Submit your event for
January by November 10,
and it just might be
featured in this calendar!
CHRISTMAS TREE: 2011 © BRENT HATHAWAY. IMAGE FROM BIGSTOCK.COM. LIGHTS: 2011 © DOUG GREENWALD. IMAGE FROM BIGSTOCK.COM. HORSE: 2011 © JEAN SCHWEITZER. IMAGE FROM BIGSTOCK.COM.
GI F T S HOP
Visit the SHOP Page at TexasCoopPower.com
for Hassle-Free Holiday Shopping
Pick and click—and gifts are on their way to friends and family.
Select from tasty Texas pecans, grapefruit, smoked meats and
gourmet food products. Or choose from cookbooks, calendars and
personalized gifts.
We’ve also got music from Texas greats like Bob Wills
and Gary P. Nunn.
Visit the SHOP Page at
TexasCoopPower.com for
special deals and discounts for
Texas Co-op Power readers.
Smoked meats and smokin’ music:
How perfect is that?!
41
HIT THE
ROAD
OH,CHRISTMAS TREE
At this popular East Texas farm, the cypresses and pines easily measure up.
BY JAN ADAMSON
It’s the day after Thanksgiving. Some
folks are making a mad dash to the
Black Friday sales to hunt for bargainpriced Christmas gifts. But others are
engaging in a different hunt far from
the jammed parking lots, the crowds
and the noise—they’re the ones heading out to cut their own Christmas tree
at one of Texas’ approximate 120
Christmas tree farms.
One of my family’s favorites is MR
AND MS TREES, 12 miles south of
Palestine in the East Texas community
of Tucker. Owned by Rick and Michaelene Sparks, members of Trinity Valley
Electric Cooperative, MR and MS Trees
is 15 acres of mostly Virginia pines,
with some Leyland cypresses, a pollenfree tree that won’t trigger allergies,
and loblolly pines.
Upon arrival at the farm, visitors are
greeted by Rick, who’s usually sporting
a cowboy hat with a stocking cap fitted
over the crown. Guests are free to take
their time finding a tree. Some like to
hang around the little gift shop first and
have a cup of hot chocolate or wassail (a
hot mulled cider) on one of the two covered porches. Some might do a little
shopping, such as for ornaments, Rick’s
special wreaths made of horseshoes,
stockings handmade by Michaelene or
fresh wreaths of Virginia pine boughs.
The youngsters will want to pay a
visit to Santa Claus, who comes to the
farm on weekends. The only thing missing is the snow. Well, it did snow once,
but that was on Easter, Rick laughs.
The Sparkses opened the farm in
2003 after Rick retired from the military.
Since then, families from near and far
have made the pilgrimage to MR and MS
Trees a traditional part of their holiday.
“We have young folks who started
coming here at 7 or 8 years old and who
now work for us,” Rick says. “We have a
family that drives from Galveston to
meet with friends, and they all come
here on Sunday and spend three or four
hours. They play football or catch in the
field. Some families bring their leashed
dogs to let them get out and play. We
get to see children meet Santa for the
first time, and young folks bring their
children back.”
Many families pack lunches and
take advantage of picnic areas with
tables and fire pits. Children can play
in the field or join in the races at the
duck pond—a water trough with sideby-side hand pumps that propel the little rubber ducks forward.
When you’re ready to find that perfect tree, hop onboard the wooden bed
of a wagon big enough to hold four families of four and four perfect trees. A
driver will take you to the field where
you can wander and wonder as long as
you like. You can cut your own tree with
the hand buck crosscut saw provided or
get some assistance.
You’ll also get a measuring stick.
Rick jokes, “A tree grows the most from
the time it gets cut down to the time it
gets home.” Everyone wants the big one
in the field, he says. But he encourages
people to think about the height of
their ceiling and the space that the
stand and treetop need.
Once you get home, cut about threequarters of an inch off the bottom of the
trunk so the tree can absorb water, Rick
advises. He says it’s not unusual for an
8-foot tree to take in a gallon of water
the first day after it’s been cut. To keep
your tree fresh throughout the holidays,
Rick says, remember this: “It’s about
location, location, location and water. It
needs to stay away from a heat source,
and that means a fireplace, a heater
vent or a big window here in Texas.”
Jan Adamson is a freelance writer
based in Grand Saline.
Go to www.mrandmstrees.com for
more information. To find a Christmas
tree farm near you, visit the Texas
Christmas Tree Growers Association’s
website, www.texaschristmastrees.com.
Visitors should call to confirm hours.
ILLUSTRATION BY GIL ADAMS
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2011 Blockbuster
Blockbuster L.L.C.
L.L.C. Digital Home Advantage
Advantage plan requires
requires 24-month
24-month agreement
agreement and crcredit
edit qualification.
qualification. Cancellation
Cancellation fee
fee of $17.50/month
$17.50/month
remaining
remaining applies if service
service is terminated
terminated before
before end of agreement.
agreement. After
After 12 months
months of pr
programming
ogramming crcredits,
edits, then-current
then-current pric
pricee will apply.
apply. $10/mo
$10/mo HD add-on fee
fee waived
waived for
for life
life of current
current account;
account; rrequires
equires 224-month
4-month agr
agreement,
eement, continuous
continuous enrollment
enrollment in AAutoPay
utoPay with PPaperless
aperless Billing. 3-month
3-month pr
premium
emium movie
movie offer
offer
value
value is $99;
$99; after
after 3 free
free months
months then-curr
then-current
ent pric
pricee applies unless you
you downgrade.
downgrade. Free
Free Standard
Standard Professional
Professional Installation
Installation only
only.. All equipment
equipment is leased and mus
mustt be rreturned
eturned ttoo DISH Ne
Network
twork upon cancellation
cancellation or unr
unreturned
eturned equipmen
equipmentt ffees
ees apply
apply.. Limit 6 leased tuners
tuners per account;
account; upfront
upfront and mon
monthly
thly ffees
ees ma
mayy
apply based on type
type and number of receivers.
receivers. HD programming
programming requires
requires HD television.
television. Prices,
Prices, packages,
packages, pr
programming
ogramming and off
offers
ers subjec
subjectctt ttoo change without notic
notice.e. Off
Offer
er aavailable
vailable ffor
or new
new and qualified former
former customers,
customers, and subjec
subjectt ttoo tterms
erms of applicable Pr
Promotional
omotional and Residential
Residential Customer
Customer agr
agreements.
eements. AAdditional
dditional
restrictions
restrictions ma
mayy apply
apply.. Off
Offer
er ends 1/31/12
1/31/12.. HBO®, Cinemax® and rrelated
elated channels and servic
servicee marks ar
aree the pr
property
operty of Home Bo
Boxx Office,
Office, Inc. STARZ
STAARZ and related
related channels and servic
servicee marks are
are property
property of Starz
Starz Entertainment,
Entertainment, LL
LLC.C. $25 Visa® gift car
cardd rrequires
equires activation
accttivation and $2
$2.95
.95 shipping and handling ffee.
ee. YYou
oou will rreceive
eceive
a claim voucher
voucher within 3-4 weeks
weeks and the voucher
voucher must
must be rreturned
eturned within 30 days.
days. YYour
our Visa® gift car
cardd will arriv
arrivee in appr
approximately
oximately 6-8 weeks.
weeks. InfinityDISH
InfinityDISH char
charges
ges a one-time $4
$49.95
9.95 non-r
non-refundable
efundable processing
processing fee.
fee. Indiana C.P.D.
C.PP.D. Reg.
Reg. No.
No. TT.S.
.S. 1010-1006.
-11006. *C
*Certain
ertain restrictions
restric
rictions
t apply
apply.. BBased
ased on the aavailability
vailability in yyour
our ar
area.
ea.
It’s Not Just Your House and Car,
it’s who you are.
At Germania Insurance, we understand that your home and your vehicle are places where you live your life and raise
your family. They’re not just property, they’re the places lasting memories are created. At Germania, we insure the
things that are most important to you—your home, your vehicle and your family. We understand.
We’ve been protecting Texans for over 115 years. We have competitive rates, discount options and exceptional
claim service, 24/7. Call your local Germania agent today and find out why Germania Insurance is
The Insurance Texans Trust.®
1-800-392-2202

this Issue - Texas Co

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